Slowly and gradually, corrugators opt for automation

In an interview at the IndiaCorr Expo, Günter Huber, reflecting on the transition in the corrugated carton industry, said, “Previously, corrugation was limited very much in investment volume. The growing demands of the consumer product companies and other Indian producers has pushed corrugators for better products and this is where our proven solutions can help them to achieve both productivity and efficiency. With our expertise, we can cater to the various demands of the customers, which may include saving of paper in production as well as achieving consistent high quality output in 3- to 7-ply paperboards because of the precision of our technology.”

BHS corrugating machinery is highly recognized by leading corrugated carton convertors around the world for its strong local presence and long shelf life. This is also because most of its corrugators are very modular in design and many have been field upgraded for speed and efficiency. Even the first corrugating machine to be sold in Asia by BHS over 25 years ago is still functional in the original investor’s company and is able to meet the current demands. The corrugator has been upgraded with equipment that delivers higher speed and better and more precise control of the range of end-products in demand. “While many components on a corrugator are obsolete and hence not available any longer, BHS Corrugated continues to support its customers with ‘obsolescence management’ using state-of-the-art retrofits based on its latest in-house BHS designs, performance and objective-oriented results for old machine components,” added Huber.

Talking about the ECO Line corrugator which was launched last year at the IndianCorr Expo in Greater Noida, he articulated, “We are highly satisfied with the ECO line orders we have received in the last 12 months as this shows we are on the right way in the strong growing but still fragmented Indian market. We just finished the in-house assembly and shipping of a wide, big volume oriented STEADY line, which will be installed shortly in India. However, with an expected production output of 5,000 metric tons a month, this line delivers significantly more than currents plants are able to digest. By providing the smaller but identical automated ECO line, we are able to offer BHS performance and quality to a larger market also matching popular paper sizes up to 1.8 m. As of today, India is the fifth largest producer of corrugated board worldwide. In the imminent future, the country is poised to become the third largest market for transport packaging and such growth anticipates significant more installations that will ensure producing paperboard at an output of more than 2.500 tons of finished boxes a month as a production requirement.”

Huber also suggested that apart from using high-end machines, corrugator users need to focus more on board quality, process optimization and best practice standards in order to further increase production volume. BHS is prepared to support its clients in this regard by offering internal resources with global experience. Especially for plant layouts and process flow improvement, a dedicated independent organization under the name System Integration was founded, which shall help investors with future-oriented building design. He added, “BHS plans to integrate digital printing into its corrugators, which will change the layout of production facilities. However, this is bound to take a couple of years, with the launch of the first prototype planned at the end of 2018.” BHS India is headquartered in Pune with sales and service presence in Bengaluru, Delhi and Nagpur. “All engineers at BHS are well trained and have international exposure,” added Sharma.